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Any boy of 4 can get the gist of these opening linesof "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson

"I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow--a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

"This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?"My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at-- there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander."

Just a comment, but it does seem like a lot of activities. Does he have free play/down time at all? I ask because many of the students I encounter these days are overbooked and stressed out. Having unstructured time is very important for the creative process at any age, but especially in these young developing minds. Relaxing is a learned behavior.

Oh, how well I remember as children sitting round a winter fire, as the dear old Pater, read about Tom and Huck.

Memories, memories ...

“You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.

Aunt Polly, Tom’s Aunt Polly, she is ... and Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that book ... which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.”

If you're concerned about his finger form, I would suggest teaching him to think of it as a spider with nice tall legs (granted, this won't work if he doesn't like spiders!), and we don't want our spider to get squished or fall down. I use this with my 4 and 5 year old students (and I have a lot of them), and I find this is successful in achieving good finger form.

At this stage, I might also suggest you find ways to develop his ear. Between the ages of 3 and 6, the ear is at its peak of sensitivity, whereas the finger muscles do not develop strongly until approximately 7 years old. You might find that teaching some pieces by straight imitation, without having him look at the book, helps develop his ear. Have him pick out some well-known songs by ear, on all white-keys, for example, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle, Hot Cross Buns, etc. This may appear to be regressing, BUT if taken as an opportunity to develop the ear, this can develop his musical 'instincts' and help further his musicality when playing other pieces.

Just a comment, but it does seem like a lot of activities. Does he have free play/down time at all? I ask because many of the students I encounter these days are overbooked and stressed out. Having unstructured time is very important for the creative process at any age, but especially in these young developing minds. Relaxing is a learned behavior.

I guess it could seem overwhelming, but at 4 years, he's yet to start kindergarten, which means he has 7 days a week to fill with activity, so in addition to the activities I've enumerated, he's actually doing much more, but he's got more downtime than my wife knows what to do with.

I really like the idea of ear-training. That's something I wish I had a lot more developed in myself, and now's a great time to start with it.

Van Cliburn's early training was quite strict. And came from his mother.

Poor fellow. Think of the baggage in later life. He could have started with folk dancing and Kodaly singing.

Peter, VC got some serious baggage! Met him at Interlochen back in '63 at an after concert party. He seemed to have "issues" even then.

I was waiting to read that from someone. No matter how well he played when he was on top, and I think he did some impressive playing, the fact that he STOPPED playing so young, then was content to keep his name alive through a now international competition while continuing NOT to play publically seems like a warning to all of us.

There are other people who also had "issues" - Horowitz had many - but some of them continued playing till the day they died.

I'd point to them as models, not the child who were all but tortured at a young age and who were later left emotionally scarred.